SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- The match was tied 3-3 between No. 32 UC Santa Barbara and No. 39 Rice University in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Everyone gathered at Court 5 to see which team would clinch the match and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Despite facing an experienced redshirt junior from Rice, the Gaucho rookie showed no nerves. Emma Tutoveanu battled through an intense first set that went to a 6-7 (4-7) tiebreak before responding with a dominant 6-2 second set. Tutoveanu had been here before, moments like these — being the last one on the court.
She had felt this pressure before, yet this time she was sure of one thing — she was going to send the Gauchos to the second round. "You know what? We're going to win this one way or another," Tutoveanu said to head coach Simon Thibodeau.
She remembered her past experiences being clinched on as a rookie. This type of pressure always made the match seem so much more than it actually was, especially as a freshman adjusting to the challenges of college tennis.
Being on a team, Tutoveanu got to hear advice about how to handle these moments. Her teammates told her, "You're already in this situation, you just have to embrace it. No one's going anywhere... The match is going to finish whether you want it to or not. And it's whoever steps up and embraces the pressure."
Taking this advice, Tutoveanu learned not to take these moments so personally, instead choosing to embrace these big pressure moments. She sealed the 4-3 victory with another 6-2 set in the third, sending the Gauchos to the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Considering Tutoveanu's junior experience, she wasn't used to this team mindset of learning from her teammates and coaches. "When you fully immerse yourself in the college atmosphere," Tutoveanu said. "You realize it's more than you, it can kind of help take some of the pressure off because you're like this is so much bigger than me."
College tennis is unique in that sense; if you lost on your court but the team still won the match, then you still won, and vice versa. It's all just bigger than you. Moments like these set Tutoveanu up for success in the NCAA Tournament.
Before punching their ticket to the NCAA 2025 Tournament, they competed and won The Big West Championship. Facing opponents the Gauchos had played earlier in the season, these matches brought both pressure and a sense of familiarity.
Although Tutoveanu fell in her singles match against Cal Poly, the Gauchos still came back and secured a 4-2 win to punch their ticket. "I think I gave the team some good energy to bounce off of me," Tutoveanu said. "And we handled it at the other four spots, it was just a bigger than me moment."
All of these experiences came back to her when playing on Court 5 at the Mitchell Tennis Center against the Owls. It felt good to finally be on the positive side of these "bigger than her" moments with her whole team rushing the court to celebrate the victory. Later that evening, she and her teammates went out to dinner together to celebrate graduate student Ali Benedetto's birthday, soaking in their final trip with three seniors and Benedetto.
Moments like that made Tutoveanu grateful she chose UC Santa Barbara. Looking back at her recruitment process, it was harder for her to stand out because while other ITF juniors traveled the world to compete in tournaments, since she was enrolled in in-person high school, she didn't have the luxury to constantly showcase her skills.
She talked to her high school coach about these concerns, and her head coach shared his thoughts about UCSB as well as his connection with Coach Simon Thibodeau. He said, "He's a good coach, and it's a beautiful place, a beautiful campus." He stressed how beautiful the campus was, and after Tutoveanu visited the campus, the beauty solidified her decision to sign with the Gauchos.
Currently, in her sophomore year, she has focused on working with a mindset that emphasizes that time will pass anyway, so why not give it her all, just like back at her match against the Owls. While Tutoveanu didn't compete in a lot of tournaments this past summer, she prioritized making every minute count and doing 100 percent in each of her practices.
At the collegiate level, players face some of the best players from the best schools in the nation, and instead of feeling this pressure, it's better to embrace this great environment. Even if she drops a point, Tutoveanu clears her mind and focuses on something else, such as hitting her next serve or shots more cleanly.
This mindset gave her a lot of confidence in her game as she started off her sophomore season with a bang, making it to the Semifinals in the Battle of the Bay Classic last fall. Tutoveanu said, "It gave me a lot of belief, and it kind of showed me that with the right mindset, you can do big things with tennis, and it validated that I did have the right mindset."
She reflects on the great senior leadership she looked up to during her freshman year. "It all comes down to preparation," senior Amelia Honer, the No. 15-ranked player in the 2024-25 ITA rankings, said. Tutoveanu looks back at this advice and uses it to fuel herself by taking every practice seriously and knowing that she can learn something from every shot and every rep.
Even if she's not in the best mood or is tired, she makes sure to have a good intention behind every drill and tries her best to bring good energy as well as set little goals by the end of each week to feel comfortable in her various skills. Tutoveanu is excited to continue competing with the Gauchos and is using everything she's learned so far to put back into her game.
"You have to go through the bad situations to take out something to learn from them," Tutoveanu said. "And who knows, maybe I wouldn't have clinched the Rice match if I hadn't gone and been clinched on before and felt that same pressure."
